Could Craig Ferguson Now Lose “The Late Late Show”?

TV’s Craig Ferguson may have built one of the smaller empires in late night television, but it’s definitely been an interesting and fun one to watch. Now just as he gets a new lead-in coming in 2015 and a brand new late night landscape to battle, the plucky little Scot is in serious jeopardy of losing his show.

Of course, there’s been a lot of wild stories and press speculation about how CBS is going to shake up their schedule now that they’ve got Stephen Colbert hosting his own late night show for them. However, this bit of soothsaying isn’t just from the rambling of a tired blogger. It’s from the guy who runs CB-Frickin’-S. The network’s president Les Moonves actually told Bloomberg that the time slot for Ferguson’s Late Late Show is officially “up in the air.” He even said that they are fielding candidates for the time slot and noted “A woman would be great in late night.”

They could always change their mind and decide to stay with Ferguson but the fact that Moonves believes Ferguson’s time slot is up for grabs means he’s probably not going to be around much longer. His contract ends in June and CBS wants to do everything it can to stay on top of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers over at NBC, both of whom are beating Letterman and Ferguson in the ratings game.

He’s right, of course, that it would be nice to see a woman take over, not just Ferguson’s late night show but any late night slot. Chelsea Handler may be the most popular name in that group but there are a ton of great female comedians who could bring a new spin to late night shows like Chelsea Peretti, Maria Bamford, Kristen Schaal and Aisha Tyler who actually tried out for The Late Late Show slot when Craig Kilborn decided to do his killer J.D. Salinger impression…
Of course, if we had to pick someone to replace Ferguson, we’d go with Geoff Peterson. It would not only continue the line of succession that networks like CBS and NBC seem to keep ignoring as they shake up their late night shows but it would also be a progressive choice. Sure, picking a woman to host a late night show would be smart but picking a robot would be brilliant.